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regularly grained strips can be smoothed without tearout or breakage. But make sute the blade is parallel to the fence (not just square to the table), because any thickness error will be multiplied in a stack of strips. Check for To check for uniform thickness, lay strips edge to edge. uniform thickness by trimming twO strips and laying them side by side on a flat surface. Feel the adjacent edges for a ridge. Flip one strip over, and feel for a ridge again. Any thickness discrepancy will be apparent. The thickness planer does a good job of removing saw- _ marks from straight-grained material, but it's likely to chew up figured wood, in part because thin strips bear unevenly against the machine's bed rollers, which results in uneven, grab by planing. Bridging the planer's bed rollers with an auxiliary bed made of Formica-covered particleboard or a similarly smooth material should solve this problem. I've planed veneer as thin as �8 in. with an auxiliary bed on a Makita 2040 planer. Sharp knives, of course, will limit tearout and will leave a better surface for gluing. Though it's more hazardous and wasteful, strips can be ripped directly on the tablesaw, without planing off the sawmarks. But I don't recommend setting the fence to the strip thickness and then ripping with little space between the blade and the fence-a repetitious operation that invites an accident. A safer way is to support the stock with a wooden form, as in figure 2. Push the form and stock fotward with your right hand while applying pressure against the form, in front of the blade, with your left. You can save yourself the waste and the relatively hazardous work of milling strips by buying Xo-in. thick veneer, a material especially well-suited for making wide bends. These sliced veneers are available in many species from Chester B. Stem, Inc. , Grant Line Rd., New Albany, Ind. 47 1 50. You may have to purchase a complete flitch, which is expensive, about $150 minimum plus shipping. But getting Out your laminae from flitches saves time and makes grain-matching automatic. To Cut the strips, I clamp part of the flitch to a bench, chalk lines to mark the strip width on the top piece of veneer and Cut the whole stack with a portable circular saw. Bending form-The key element of successful compoundcurve lamination is the bending form. It must be versatile enough to conform to the curve, yet strong enough to hold Fig. 2: Cutting strips on the tablesaw Thickness of strip desired the laminae rigidly in place during glue-up. A bend even 3 ft. long acts as a powerful lever, exerting tremendous force when a stack of laminae are bent. Nothing is worse than having parts of the form pop loose during glue-up. The fixture I describe here shows one way inae; see the boxes on pp. 62-63 for some other ideas. Any device-2x4s tacked to the ceiling and floor, steel pipes, even the shop's supporting posts-can be pressed into service, so long as it supportS the laminae and remains firmly in place. Begin the form by making a base plane, which can be particleboard or plywood if your design is small, or the shop floor if it's larger. I sometimes strike a grid pattern on the base as reference points to aid the layout of the curves, but I translate the model lines to the form mostly by eye-the spontaneous nature of this method makes it difficult to more exactly duplicate the model. Once you've laid Out the curve on the base, mark reference to points where both ends of the curve will rest on it and temporarily screw down twO 2x4 blocks to serve as anchors for clamping both ends of a laminate strip, as in the photo at the tOP of the facing page. You're now ready to try a mock-up bend-a single strip that will illustrate the actual form, and will tell you what kind of radius can be bent with a certain thickness strip and what sort of compound curve is possible. With one end of the test strip clamped down, start bend- ing it in the direction you want it to go. Remember, strips of wood will bend easily only in one direction; you'll have to twist them to get compound bends. Take your time. Experiment with strips of varied thickness and try different bends and twists. Once you've gOt a pleasing curve, stand back, look it over from various angles and compare it to your model. The mock-up strip should describe fair, consistent curves with no unintended kinks, flat SPOtS or quick rums. Don't be afraid to play around with the strip and form until you get just the curve you want. Using the mock-up strip as a guide, you can now make the Blade Mark stock with correct reassembly '60 V to bending fixtute from construction lumber (2x2s, 2x4s, plywood, etc.), fastened together with hot-melt glue and drywall screws. But first rebuild the end blocks, anchoring them with stouter stock, or at least reinforce them with corner blocks and screws. Then make a series of 2x2 braces and locate them on about 2�-in. centers, as in the middle photos on the facing page. These braces will hold the curve's position in space and will also support the weight of the clamps. You should supPOrt the curve anywhere along its length where the weight of the clamps is liable to distort the bend. But if you use lightweight clamps, such as the rubber inner tubes and boltclamps I'll describe later, you won'r need to brace the curve as Stoutly. I like to keep 2x2s, screws and hot-melt glue handy during the glue-up to shore the curve if it sags unexpectedly. To keep from gluing the bend to the form, cover with masking tape those parts of the supports that may come in contact with glue. Mark the point at which your mock-up strip intersects the braces, so you'll have a way to line up the laminate stack when you make the actual bend. Then remove the mock-up strip from the form. assure Jig with end block to hold stock Clamping and gluing-Each compound curve calls for its own clamping scheme, depending on the severiry of the curve and thickness and width of the laminae. Quick-action or C-clamps will work, but if you're attempting a large bend you may not have enough, or there may be insufficient space suppOrt and clamp the lam